Hunters
Vampire Hunters are professionals whose job it to clean an area from vampires that may affect it. In the ancient time, especially in Greecehttp://vampires.monstrous.com/macedonian_vampires.htmand Serabia, it was a recognized profession. Today, a few people still pretend to hunt vampires as Manchester from the Highgate vampire Story In fiction, a vampire hunter or vampire slayer is someone who specializes in finding and destroying vampires and sometimes other creatures of dark fantasy as well. As they are people who believe they are real vampires, other considers their life as a holy crusade. In modern lore, Human Living Vampires define slayers as people who hunts, stalks, threatens, or does harm to someone because he or she is a vampire, or because the hunter believes them to be so; or which gathers information to report those who are vampires. Conspiracy theories are popular among those hunters who believe there is a plot afoot by Vampires and by the Goth movement through out the world especially in America, Germany and some other countries. Professional vampire hunters played some part in the vampire lore of the Balkans (especially in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romania). In Bulgarian, the terms used to designate them included glog (lit. "hawthorn", the species of wood used for the stake), vampirdzhiya, vampirar, dzhadazhiya or svetocher . Most hunters were Christian, but there was a few instances of Jewish hunters and Muslim hunters. They are usually convinced that the vampire is a servant of the Devil and feel it is their duty to destroy vampires. In some traditions, the killing of vampires was only performed by vampire hunters. Aside from the well-known manners of execution (staking the corpse, burning it, etc.) that were normally entrusted to them, the hunters were also capable of using other methods such as enticing the invisible creature with music and then shooting it, or throwing its hat or head-cloth into the water and telling it to go fetch it (which caused it to drown). They were usually either born on Saturday (then called Sabbatarians, Bulgarian sâbotnichav, Greek sabbatianoí) or the offspring of a vampire and a woman (typically his widow), called a dhampir in Romani or a vampirovic in Serbian. A dhampir could become a professional or semiprofessional vampire hunter and charge a village for his services. According to surviving accounts, the dhampir began his work in a village by telling those who hired him that there was a bad smell in the air. He would then appear to attempt to locate its source. He might, for example, take off his shirt and look through the sleeve as if looking through a telescope. He would describe the shape that the invisible vampire had taken. Once he located the vampire, he might engage it in a dramatic hand-to-hand fight or simply shoot it. Once killed, the vampire smelled even more and might leave a pool of blood on the ground. Sometimes it could not be killed, in which case the dhampir would attempt to run it off to another village. Among the more notable dhampirs was one named Murat, who operated in the 1950s in the Kosovo-Metohija area of Serbia. In Bulgaria the vampire hunters were called vampirdzhija or djadadjii. They tended to operate in a more traditional fashion. Their main task seemed to have been to locate the particular grave that held the resting vampire's body. In this task they used an icon, a holy picture in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. After locating the vampire, the villagers would impale it or burn the body. In the case of the Sabbatarians, it was believed in some places that they needed to be fed meat from a sheep killed by a wolf (Bulgarian vâlkoedene); this would enable them not to fear the things that only they were able to see. In Croatian and Slovenian legends, the villages had their own vampire hunters that were called kresniks, whose spirits were able to turn into animals at night to fight off the vampire or kudlak. The slayer is usually a heroic figure, a lonesome avenger, or sometimes, although not usually, a bounty hunter-style character, hunting Vampires for profit. Vampire hunters have also popularly been depicted as hunting various creatures such as werewolves, demons, and other forms of undead as well. While predominantly depicted as human, examples of other types of vampire hunters also exist. Dhampiric figures, having a mix of human and vampire blood, are a popular form (such as Alucard from the Castlevania series; D of Vampire Hunter D and Blade of the Blade series of comic books, movies, and television episodes). Even rarer are vampire hunters that are vampires themselves. Two examples of this type can be found in Morbius from Ultimate Spider-Man, and Zero Kiryuu in the manga and anime series Vampire Knight. The most widely known example of a vampire hunter is Abraham Van Helsing of the novel Dracula and in other works of fiction adapting or modifying that work. As far as movies are concerned, Peter Cushing has been the most convincing actor for the role and the prototype for all successful vampire slayers that followed him. The Horror of Dracula (1958), The Brides of Dracula (1959), Dracula AD 1972 (1972), Satanic Rites of Dracula (aka Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride, 1973), and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974), were all produced by Hammer. In John Carpenter's Vampires (1998), adapted from the novel by John Steakley, Jack Crow (played by James Woods) is the leader of a Catholic Church-sanctioned team of vampire hunters. The plot is centered on Crow's efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Valek, a Regent. Valek was once a priest who was thought to have been possessed by demons. The Bérziers Cross was used in an exorcism that was cut short but the result was that Valek was forever changed into the first vampire. Other more recent figures include Buffy "the Vampire Slayer" Summers from the television show and film of the same name. Buffy's spin-off series Angel is also focused on a vampire hunter, the titular star, Angel "the World's Champion," a vampire himself, is often portrayed battling vampires. Vampire hunters have also appeared in video games, such as BloodRayne. The organizational strength of depicted vampire hunters can vary wildly. Most hunter characters are in small groups working alone and in secret. Sometimes the hunting is a family tradition handed down to future generations of a bloodline. On the other hand, the Hellsing Organization in the anime television series, Hellsing is a British government paramilitary strike force with access to troops, heavy combat vehicles and weapons and even allied vampires. As well as being knowledgable about vampire lore, vampire hunters as depicted in fiction are often armed with an eclectic mix of items and weapons which are designed to take maximum advantage of the monster's traditional weaknesses. These have included firearms with silver ammunition, appropriate religious symbols, crossbows that fire all wood bolts and waterguns filled with blessed holy water. Hunters are usually good computer hackers or detectives and can successfully trick certain agencies or organizations into giving out an address or phone number. What to take if you need to hunt a real vampire: *A sword (silver blade inlay preferable) *A crossbow (long or short doesn't matter as long as the bolts are wood or have a silver point) *Several wooden stakes *A hammer (to pound the stake through the chest) *A cross (may or may not work but is worth a try) *A container of gasoline or other flamable liquids *Several matches *A backpack to carry the smaller items Note that these items are available at any supermarket or warehouse store. Of course, if you can, take also: *A shotgun *Grenades *A couple of trained American pitt-bulls or dobbermans (they will buy you take the vampire by surprise). Travelers in the 19th century would purchase vampire hunting kits in preparation for their travels to Eastern Europe. Most vampire killing kits were made in Boston, and contained a crucifix, bible, wooden stake, holy water, pistol with lead bullets, gunpowder, garlic powder and glass vials that held various concoctions to ward off vampires. They were available by mail order, for people traveling to remote regions like Transylvania, where people were talking about vampires well before Bram Stoker invented Dracula. The quack Professor Ernst Blomberg is one of the fabled craftman that assembled such kits in the nineteen century. There are only a few original vampire kits in the world, and most of them can be found in Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums, in 8 countries around the world. With interest for vampires on the rise, in the media, vampire killing kits are among the most popular of Ripley’s exhibits. To the true hunter, stealth and cunning are the greatest defenses. We are knights on a mission. The cross is our shield, and the stake is our sword. To all you would be slayers and hunters, my advice is to apprentice yourself to a master slayer, be patient and humble, and learn from your master. If after your first successful destruction, you find you have a taste for the game, them maybe, you can join the ranks of the elite, but if you have any sense at all, you'll run and hide. Make no mistake about this, the only creature who is lonelier than the vampire, it the one who hunts it.